Optical Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics: A Toolbox for Deterministic Quantum Information Science with Stationary Atoms and Flying Photons

Abstract

For a long time, the investigation of light-matter interaction at the single-particle level was considered purely academic. Today, fundamentally new applications are on the horizon, in particular in the optical domain. New light forces have been discovered, enabling one to store atoms for such a long time that genuine quantum protocols can be realized with just one single atom. The first example concerns the realization of a source of single photons with realtime control of its performance. The bit stream of photons delivered by such a single-photon server is useful in quantum information science. A second experiment concerns the deterministic entanglement of a single atom with a flying photon. Subsequent mapping of the atomic state onto a second photon makes possible to produce entangled photons on demand. The experimental demonstration of such a novel scheme is an important step towards the production of highly entangled many-photon quantum states and scalable quantum networks of atom-cavity systems. Article not available.